The NATO countries boycotted the Moscow Olynpic games in 1980 to protest against the then USSR invasion of Afghanistan. Twenty years later, for reasons that are still unclear, the same NATO countries invaded Afghanistan, killed and nutilated a large number of Afgans, destroyed the whole country and its system and now pretend to assist it in its reconstruction. And they organised a conference in Germany, thousands of miles away from Afghanistan to discuss the matter.

The fate of Afghanistan is better left to Afghans rather than the West. When the US and NATO leaves Afghanistan, we can be sure they will be leaving a bloodly mess, that unfortunately the Afghans themselves will have to cleanup! What follows next will probably an American and NATO war against Syria and Iran. The West since the end of WWII have been enpanding resources making war and not peace. The west especially the USA have plenty of money for wars and very little for peace! Because of that, war criminals like Geroge W Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are getting away with mass murder and the International Court of Justice turns a blind eye. At the rate things are going, the worl will see a major war breaking out in 2012, thanks to the West.

Colonialism at its worse - the "owners of the world" deciding the fate of the Afghans, who are not truly being represented since Karzai was fraudulently elected, something that even his paymasters do recognize.

It is nothing but imperialism and hegemony at their ugliest.
If the west so desperately desires democracy in Kabul, why not have a truly fair and honest (without covert manipulation or intervention) new general elections to let Afghans decide for their own future?
What despicable hypocrites! (btt1943)

The thing that makes this post sad is the lack of input that Afghan has. This table shows all these other powers and no representation from its own leaders. I think the think the thing that makes it even more sad is that most of these countries live no where near Afghanistan. It would be different if it was at least local powers but when foreign powers have this much control t seem to hint at imperialism.

Does anyone else notice the degradation of comment quality on this site over the past few weeks?

The U.S. would like nothing more than to get out of Afghanistan, the U.S. got into Afghanistan in the first place to displace the people who harbored the man responsible for killing 3,000+ American civilians. We are nice, and didn't want to turn the region into a hellhole so we tried to "nation build." That failed miserably so here we are.

The way I read this cartoon is that while the NATO and Afghanistan may try and discuss a peaceful withdrawal, everything hinges on Pakistan. If Pakistan chooses to remove it's box... the table that we are negotiating on falls.

America is very imperialistic, don't get me wrong. But imperialism isn't necessary a bad thing. And Afghanistan isn't a very good case of American imperialism.

I believe the elders of Afghanistan deserve a pension after enduring a lifetime of invasion and occupation by militarists, who have embarrassed our species enough. Grant them that pension, under the UN, with the proviso that they emancipate their women and children. It would happen tomorrow.

Have you forgotten that Osama Bin Laden lived there...Afghanistan has no oil, the only export is illegal cocaine. If america was as bad as you paint it out to be it could simply bomb it from end to end and keep bombing it whenever anything is built... but no they have tried to nation build..so i must salute hteir efforts even if flawed and corrupt.

Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic society bonded together by a common history and Islamic Ideology. Pashtoons are leading ethnic group who are perpetually struggling to hold the throne of Kabul. Talibans are mostly Pashtoons and is the only potent force for Pashtoons at the moment to hold the regime in Kabul. The international forces must now understand that Taliban means Pashtoons and without them a stable Afghanistan is impossible. The International Forces failed to grow a political force alternate to Talibans in Afghanistan. Pashtoons in Afghanistan and Pakistan are looking towards Pakistan as their source to rule Afghanistan. Keeping in view the above facts now International Forces must bring moderate Taliban forces to engage in political activities. The world must also ensure the interests of Pakistan in Afghanistan primarily the land of Afghanistan is not used by any country for subversive activities in Pakistan. The world if ignores the power of Pashtoons or Pakistan's interest in Afghanistan then the stable Afghanistan is not a reality.

If USA and afghanistan want peace and stability in the region and particularly in afghanistan. Both of them must respect the territorial sovereignity of their neighbours. The so called Bonn conference can only pave the for the US withdrawal. It is connot put an end to the afghan issue. The only pencea to resolve the issue is to involve the taliban and pakistan in the negotiations. Afghan govt has to take some steps. such as, To shut dawn the covert activities done on its soil against pakistan by the consulates of india. It has to stop blame game against pakistan. Pakistan has lost 70B$ and more than 40000 lives. Instead of appreciating the efforts of pakistan they blame pakistan. This will give a serious blow to the efforts for restoring peace and stability in the region.

This post shows the lack of input that Afghanistan has. The table represents all of these other powers and yet no representation from Afghan's leaders. On top of this, most of the countries are not close to Afghanistan. I think that Afghanistan should have input in NATO.

In my opinion Afghanistan should have as much of a say as the other countries that are shown above. I think that Afghanistan should be able to have input in NATO. I realize that they should be punished for events that they have led in the past. Now they should have a say in NATO.

Plain BS. And in which court of justice OBL was tried or convicted? Who gave US the right to invade any other soveriegn country and kills millions. Sure Afghanistan does not have oil (for now at least) but it houses many other strategic interets which US can't ignore.
If it isnt true US could easily do with it what it did with Somalia, hope u remember?

John.Woody, you're polite to extreme calling the disastrously silly comments above yours "a decline in quality". In order to have something declining, you need to have this something in the first place - in this case, quality. Alas!

This picture show's exactly how the future of Afghanistan is going to be dealt with. The western powers are the ones that are going to decide how/when to leave Afghanistan and in what shape for the future. However, I have trust that the choice they make effects the country of Afghanistan in a positive way. Since US in particular has been the one to support the people of the middle east countries over the governments(non-republic) of the middle east. I believe the future of Afghanistan looks something in sort like the Team West.

The very notion that a terrorist needs to be tried in a court and convicted is plain BS. A terrorist needs to be taken to the yard by any sergeant on duty and shot in the head. It took too long to do that favour to Usama .

If you are an American, still believing to date that Afghanistan was invaded to catch a terrorist, or that the US is a benevolent interest-neutral actor spreading peace and democracy, rather than basing policy decisions on national interests, your government sure has done a great job in educating you.

If you look at the Afghanistan, you will realize that no rational state would undergo the immense financial and political costs of war for the officially claimed reason. Vital US geostrategic interests in that region played into the decision to make that step. Just have a look at a map, check out the surrounding countries, and you'll understand why the US went into Afghanistan. Classic Brzezinski and his Grand chessboard. The tragic event that provided the legitimacy necessary for the invasion was called the "new pearl harbour" by Bush, that justified an increase in military spending.

And you seriously don't think that the US could have just "simply bomb it from end to end", they cannot, remember, the US is formally a democracy and dependent on domestic voters as well as on international membership, no goverment could get away with that without facing consequences, not even the most powerful one. But hey, i admire your optimistic forgiveness